Happy New Year!
Yesterday, Mark Burns and I led our 26th Annual New Year’s Day Birding Trip
for the Brookline Bird Club (BBC)! At 9:00AM, 24 BBCers met at Cashman Park
in Newburyport where we toasted in the New Year with sparkling apple cider,
introduced ourselves, and reported on where we traveled from and what our
first bird of the New Year was. We had splendid weather with clear sky,
sunshine, light breezes, and warm temps (hi of 55df). We birded Salisbury
Beach State Reservation, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Ipswich, and
called it a day at 4:30PM at Jodrey Fish Pier in Gloucester. We tallied 58
species.
Red-throated Loon – 3
Common Loon – 14
Horned Grebe – 9
Red-necked Grebe – 4
Great Cormorant – 2
Canada Goose – 44
Mute Swan – 2
Gadwall – 6
American Black Duck – 87
Mallard – 111
Northern Pintail – 20
Common Eider – 163
Surf Scoter – 10
White-winged Scoter – 62
Black Scoter – 13
Long-tailed Duck – 14
Bufflehead – 8
Common Goldeneye – 3
Hooded Merganser – 7
Common Merganser – 4
Red-breasted Merganser – 12
Bald Eagle – 2
Northern Harrier – 4
Copper’s Hawk – 11
Red-tailed Hawk – 5
Merlin – 1
Peregrin Falcon – 1
Wild Turkey – 6
Sanderling – 14
Purple Sandpiper – 37
Herring Gull – 120
Ring-billed Gull – 30
Great Black-backed Gull – 16
Black-legged Kittiwake – 3
Razorbill – 23
Dovekie – 7
Rock Pigeon – 32
Mourning Dove – 5
Snowy Owl – 1
Red-headed Woodpecker – 1 (seen by a splinter group in Appleton Farm)
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 4
Downy Woodpecker – 5
Hairy Woodpecker – 2
Pileated Woodpecker – 1
American Crow – 9
Black-capped Chickadee – 21
Tufted Titmouse – 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 3
White-breasted Nuthatch – 4
Eastern Bluebird – 8
American Robin – 2
Northern Mockingbird – 3
American Tree Sparrow – 4
Snow Bunting – 40
Northern Cardinal – 2
Red-winged Blackbird – 14
American Goldfinch – 10
NORTHERN LAPWING – 1 (seen by the group at Maplecroft Farm)!
Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy, and Birdy 2023!